Further human remains, including limbs, were found near the site, at Thorntons Recycling plant on Kileen Road, on Saturday evening.

The refuse worker who made the initial discovery has been offered counselling.

A statement from the Garda Siochana on Sunday said: "These body parts were removed to Tallaght Hospital where a post mortem examination was carried out by the Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis.

"DNA analysis has determined that the body parts are male, and both come from the same person.

"There is no other information known about the race, nationality, age etc, and a cause of death has yet to be determined. The services of a forensic anthropologist have been requested."

In August last year, the body of a 43-year-old homeless Polish man, Henryk Piotrowski, fell out of a bin lorry at the Panda Group plant in the Ballymount area of Dublin.

He had been sleeping rough on the streets and suffocated when the skip was lifted into the back of a lorry. His body was found by refuse workers.

After the latest find, suspicion will fall on the crime gangs waging a series of violent turf wars in the Irish capital.

The increasingly young and ruthless gangsters have a reputation for mutilating not only those they kill but also victims they abduct and torture. In June, a 16-year-old boy had three fingers chopped off by a group of criminals in the Clondalkin district of Dublin.

There have been about 200 gangland-related killings in and around Dublin over the last decade, with only about 20 having been solved.